Five years ago, the CEO of one of the largest pain clinic companies in the Southeast was sentenced to more than three years in prison after being convicted in a $4 million illegal kickback scheme.
But after just four months behind bars, John Estin Davis walked free. President Donald Trump commuted Davis’ sentence in the last days of his first term. In a statement explaining the decision, the White House said that “no one suffered financially” from Davis’ crime.
In court, however, the Trump administration was saying something very different. As the president let him go, the Department of Justice alleged in a civil lawsuit that Davis and his company defrauded taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars with excessive urine drug testing. The DOJ alleged that Comprehensive Pain Specialists made such a “staggering” sum from cups of pee that employees had given the testing a profit-minded nickname: “liquid gold.”
Davis and the company denied all allegations in court filings and settled the DOJ’s fraud lawsuit without any determination of liability. Davis declined to comment for this article.
John Estin Davis, former CEO of Comprehensive Pain Specialists, who was convicted of health care fraud, was granted clemency by President Donald Trump in 2021. At the same time, the Department of Justice was suing Davis for allegedly orchestrating a much larger health care fraud scheme. Davis and CPS later settled the lawsuit without any admission of wrongdoing.(Heidi de Marco/KFF Health News)
Since returning to the White …